A Memorable Halloween
by speaker4thesilent
Summary: If Dawn had actually been there for Halloween of season two, what would have changed? AU from Halloween episode. Some character bashing in later chapters. DX AJ. Short hiatus so I can read more of the background material in my munificent free time.
1. A Memorable Halloween

For those of you who are waiting for updates on my other stories, I'm sorry, really I am. I've been working on my Gundam Seed fic, but I've hit a roadblock and the plot bunnies are gnawing on me something fierce. This fic is an attempt to chase the rabid rabbits away for a bit so I can finish chapter three of We Few.

As usual, I don't own anything. Joss, Mutant Enemy, Tite Kubo, and some other people own the pretty toys. I'm just playing with them and will return them unharmed. Do not sue me, as I have nothing worth taking.

Warning!! Multiple crossovers ahead! YAHF! Possible character death (the bunnies are undecided as of yet; when they finish mulling it over I'll tell you one way or the other)! Also, Dawn was born Buffy's sister in this timeline, she wasn't created later, but she is still the Key. The crossover timelines are also rather tangled. I refer you to the fic Upon A Fiery Steed for the version of Duo Maxwell that is appearing in this fic. The idea caught my attention and I have been unable to keep the bunnies away from it.

This is, essentially the prologue to a bigger series. If enough people like it I'll continue to post. If the damn rabbits keep biting my shins I will continue to post. This fic is, however, merely a sideshow and We Few still has my main attention so don't expect regular updates. Now, on with the fic!

XXXXX

A Memorable Halloween

Xander passed through Ethan's Costume Shop, watching in his peripheral vision as Buffy and Willow spoke to the owner about a frilly old-fashioned dress. _Probably wants to get it to impress Deadboy, _Xander reflected irritably. _Why can't she see that anything between them will end badly? Hello! Vampire and Vampire _SlayerHowever, Xander's impending bad mood was irretrievably shattered by a voice from behind him.

"Can I help you there?" a precise, suitably stuffy and superior British-accented voice asked from just behind him. Xander tried to whirl around in midair and nearly ended up on the floor before he caught his balance on a costume rack.

"Good God! Don't do that! Especially in this town!" Xander reprimanded the Brit before glancing reflexively at the costume rack he was holding. He almost turned back to talk to the owner some more, but something about one of the costumes caught his eye. Looking at it more closely he saw that it was a futuristic version of a priest's robes. They were black with subtly off-white trim and bands of gold at the wrists and throat and on the belt. A golden cross on a gold necklace hung in a separate bag along with a revolver, a pair of glasses, and a slightly longer than shoulder-length silver wig. Most people wouldn't have recognized the costume. Xander, as an Anime freak got it right away.

That could have been the end of it, right then and there. Xander sees cool costume, Xander recognizes and admires costume, Xander decides costume is out of his price range and picks up a gun to go with his soldier fatigues. Sadly, it was not to be. Instead of immediately turning back to the owner of the place, the founding Scooby looked over at Buffy and Willow, still fawning over the dress and reached a snap decision. _She likes vamps? Fine. I can do Vamp, and I can do one that isn't restricted to a liquid diet and darkness. This'll be worth it even if I have to dip into my road trip funds!_

Now Xander turned to look at Ethan who was, surprisingly, giving him a look of sympathy. "Having trouble attracting a certain person's attention?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah," Xander responded, "She only goes for a certain type, and I'm not it. How much for this one here?" Xander asks as he grabs the priest's robes off of the shelf.

Ethan smiles at him slightly. "Normally I'd charge forty dollars plus a security deposit," at Xander's wince he continues. "But I think that I can make you a deal tonight. Give me ten as a security deposit and tell anyone who asks about it that you got it from me." At Xander's surprised and somewhat suspicious look Ethan elaborates, "We might be portrayed as all stiff upper lip on this side of the pond, but we're not completely without empathy. Besides, if I was out to make money, do you really think that I'd be selling costumes?" Xander accepted the explanation and paid the ten bucks quite willingly totally missing the fact that two sets of eyes had carefully noted the entire exchange.

XXXXX

Dawn was absolutely disgusted with her sister. A princess dress? What was she, six? Or were the bleach's effects on her brain beginning to escalate? She was making a fool of herself for a vampire when she had Xander, who was one of the nicest, cutest guys ever, right there ready for the taking. Not, of course, that she was complaining about that last part. After all, that just gave her a chance to steal him out from under her stupid sister's nose.

So when it came time to pick out her costume there was only one in the entire store that would suffice. Getting it to fit would require enlisting her mother's help, but that would be well worth the cost. She smiled widely as a black robe that almost completely matched the one Xander had chosen disappeared into a plastic bag. No silly vapid female for her; she would go as a fellow warrior against the darkness. She might not have her sister's looks yet, but she had other ways of attracting attention and she was willing to use all of them in her quest to become Mrs. Dawn Harris.

XXXXX

Amy Madison was starting to feel angry. _This is the last time I do a reading before I make a decision. _She swore to herself. _Why the hell does my future depend on following Xander's 'path'? _She wondered for the tenth time as she watched him buy a priest's outfit.

_What the? Am I supposed to go as a nun? _But then she remembered the wig and the gun. _So, not just a generic priest. Now where have I seen that- _her thoughts cut off abruptly. _Anime. I have to dress up as someone from an anime show? _Not only was this annoying, but it was now threatening what little social life that she still had. _Okay, who from the whole anime freak show looks normal enough to be unremarkable? _The task of figuring out a costume was made more difficult than strictly necessary by her general lack of knowledge where anime was concerned, but . . .

Amy blinks, remembering one of Jonathan's manga that she'd read a couple of years before her mother had taken over her body and broken off their friendship. It had been the third _or was it fourth _issue of Bleach. She remembered it because it had been right at the beginning of her Wicca phase and she'd been intrigued by the girl, Ruika? Rukia? and her soul reaper magic. Amy smiled. She also didn't have a dumb costume or embarrassing prop that she carried around. So all that she'd need . . . _Black hair dye and a schoolgirl's uniform._ _Oh, and a cell phone. _Then a problem occurred to her. _Need something in case Commandant Snyder gets on my case about not having a costume. _She frowned in consternation for a moment before she noticed what appeared to be a skeletal bat on a wand. She seemed to remember a flying device from one of the later manga that looked a lot like it. _A little glue and this'll be just like the one the cat had. _That wouldn't be too hard at all.

She quickly grabbed what she needed off of the shelves around her and made her way to the checkout, noticing Buffy's little sister walking out the door with a costume similar to Xander's. She idly wondered who she was going as before deciding it didn't really matter and heading back to her house to get everything ready for escorting the rugrats.

XXXXX

Xander adjusted the holster under his left arm for the third time in as many minutes as he approached the door of the Summers' home. _Well, here goes. _He reaches out and knocks on the door, plastering fake smile number two on his face. What he sees when the door opens momentarily freezes him solid. "Lady Elizabeth," he greets he with a graceful, courtly bow, "it is good to see that you are well."

Buffy immediately reached to check his temperature, and not entirely as a joke. "Are you alright, Xander?"

"Who is this Xander you speak of milady? I am Father Abel Nightroad, and I am pleased to meet you again," Xander smiled at a grinning Buffy.

"Nice acting Xand," She said as she let him in. "So who's Father Nightroad?"

Xander decided to tease her just a little bit more, "Why, milady, I suppose it's no surprise that you don't remember me. I am after all, only a lowly priest."

Buffy mock glared at him. "Come on Xander, who-" she began before a thumping on the stairs distracted her. Buffy began to frown as her sister stepped into view then stopped abruptly and blinked, quickly looking back and forth between Xander and Dawn. "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that you two have a common theme?" She asked.

Dawn's only reply was, "Positive," a small grin leaking past her serious mask as Xander laughed out loud behind her.

"Nice one Dawnie! How'd you get your mom to let you stay up late enough to watch that?" Xander asked the younger Summers woman with a grin.

"Didn't. You see, there's this thing on the VCR called a record button . . ." she trailed off grinning.

Buffy just shook her head, exasperated. There was no stopping them when they got in one of these moods. The creak of the stairs alerted Buffy to the descending form of her best friend. "Oh, guys just wait until you see-" she cut off and hit herself on the forehead as Willow appeared.

"Mighty fine boo you got there Wills" Xander said with a small smile for the poor slayer. Trying to get Willow to dress sexy was like trying to order back the tide. Failure was inevitable.

XXXXX

(A/N We all know what happened, there's no point going over it again, so in the interest of sparing you the entire Halloween episode, I'm moving right along.)

Father Abel Nightroad opened his eyes and pushed himself up off of the pavement. That, in and of itself, was not unusual. He seemed to be forever falling down or tripping over something, mostly as an effort to seem harmless and non-threatening. And somehow, despite the fact that, with a little time and effort, he could destroy an entire city, he managed to pull it off. This time, however, the mask slips. As he looks around, he realizes that he cannot identify his surroundings.

The architecture looks stuck between that of his own time and what humanity had built pre-Armageddon. He could have happily stood and studied the buildings in front of him for the rest of the night, lost in decades of memories, if he hadn't heard a voice behind him.

"Father Nightroad?" a low-pitched female voice asks. He turns his head and smiles politely.

"Yes young lady? What can I do for y-?"

Before he can finish his sentence, the girl, by appearance a very attractive woman perhaps seventeen years of age with waist-length brown hair incongruously wearing a priest's robes, has blurred into motion and Abel finds himself looking down the barrels of a pair of 12.9mm pistols. "Voice print not recognized. Answer, what have you done with Father Nightroad?"

Abel Nightroad, currently in possession of the body of one Alexander Harris, blinks behind his glasses. "Father Tres?"

The girl cocks her pistols. "That is not an accepted response. Answer, What have you done with Father Nightroad?"

_No doubt that's him- er –her? _"Tres, have you looked at yourself yet?" Abel asks gently.

Tres frowned slightly at the apparent _Non Sequitor _before automatically looking down. What he/she saw clearly startled him/her. For several moments Father Nightroad could almost see Tres's wheels spinning. After several seconds he looked back up quickly. "Authenticate, Victor-Alpha-Golf-niner-seven-two-four," the mechanical priest demanded. It was probably one of the three most obscure codes in existence. Fortunately for him, Father Nightroad had memorized all of them years ago.

"Charlie-Tango-Sierra-one-one-five-niner," he responded.

"Authentication valid. Identity provisionally established as Father Abel Nightroad, callsign 'Crusnik'" Tres acknowledged, lowering his guns.

However, before either priest could try to sort anything else out, they were interrupted by a scream down the street. They glance at each other and nod, and Abel Nightroad and Tres Iqus take off down the road, guns at the ready. One to defend, one to destroy. Two priests at opposite ends of the spectrum of life; an unlikelier pair of friends were unimaginable. Android and Vampire. Sword and Shield of the faith. _You and me against the world. When do we attack?_

XXXXX

Rukia Kuchiki pushed herself up from the porch on which she'd been laying and shook her head in confusion that almost immediately turned into amazement as she looked inward. My Kidō has returned? she asked aloud. Then she blinked in confusion This isn't my gigai! Am I . . . human? the soul reaper wondered aloud. A growl from behind her caught her attention and she whirled around to see a yellow-eyed demi? with fangs and a seriously lumpy forehead looking at her hungrily. Belatedly she realized that not only was he speaking in a language that was not Japanese, but that she could understand it perfectly.

". . . for a snack," he'd finished with a sick grin. Rukia knew that grin. She certainly ought to, she'd seen it on Hollow's masks often enough. So when the creature charged at her she calmly vaulted over it and used its head as an ad hoc springboard. Path of Destruction Four: Pale Lightning! she cried as she pointed her right hand at the possible demi's head. The bolt of white lightning that shot out of her finger was powerful enough to disintegrate the strange being instantly as well as blow a plate sized hole in the ground a meter deep behind it. _I really do have my powers back, _she thought with a grin. She opened up her cell phone to check for any hollow sightings and to call R and D to try and figure out why she was in a human's body, but what she found surprised her. No service! she yelled in shock. _There isn't anywhere on Earth or in the Soul Society where this thing doesn't work! _A shocking thought hit her consciousness. _Then I'm apparently not on Earth. _For the first time she really looked around and discovered yet another surprise. Nothing was in Japanese! Yet she could read it effortlessly. She just happened to glance at the window beside her as she was thinking and jumped back yet again. _This isn't even my face! _Rukia pondered the problem for a few moments, staring. _She's not even Asian! _But she quickly had other problems.

Apparently the demi, creature, whatever! had friends. Four of them had apparently noticed their comrade's death and came around the side of the house and immediately rushed to attack her. Ruler, the mask of blood and flesh, all things of the Universe that fly; she chanted as they ran towards her. that which names all! she vaulted off of their leader's head the same way as before using its own momentum to throw herself high into the air. In the name of Truth and Temperance, dig you claws into the wall of sinless dreams but lightly! Path of Destruction Thirty-Three: Pale Fire Crash! She concluded as a ball of blue flames flew from her left palm and struck the ground right in the middle of the group. When the smoke cleared, all that was left was a charred patch of pavement. By this time, however, people and monsters were spilling into the area in droves. Rukia knew instinctively that there were simply too many to defeat with spells alone and, for a moment, wished for her zanpakutō. Almost immediately she felt her kidō reach out and twist. The results were unplesant and not so unplesant alternately. The unplesant part was that she really felt like emptying her stomach. The plesant part was that she was wearing her shihakushō and zanpakutō.

Without hesitation, she drew the living blade and struck at the closest creature. Glowing blue blood sprayed from the dog-faced demon's now severed right arm. It stared, aparently befuddled at the missing apendage for a moment before Rukia's sword decapitated it, parting the armored flesh and bone as though it was paper. Rukia, never one to stand on the defensive, charged into the closest group of creatures and began a deadly dance, her speed and the preturnaturally sharp edge of her zanpakutō more than a match for the fangs and claws of the enemy. For several moments the surprise of her charge seemed to make her invulnerable. A dozen creatures fell in thirty seconds decapitated, eviscerated, missing limbs, or, in the case of one persistent enemy, all three. However, the weight of numbers was against her and more and more of the creatures simply passed her to chase the fleeing humans. That was unacceptable; however, there seemed little that she could do about it.

Finally, distracted by her attempt to discern a way to hold the creatures' attention, Rukia made a mistake. Her left foot slipped on a piece of newspaper and she fell to the ground and a beast with a goatlike head and clawed hands and feet slapped her zanpakutō out of her hand. A blast of pale lightning reduced it and another creature behind it to smoking corpses, but she knew that the tide had turned against her. She used a binding spell on one and destroyed the next to approach with more pale lightning, but she knew that she simply didn't have the power to keep it up. Three more demons went the way of the dinosaurs before she finally missed one. A creature with an apelike body and a pair of demonic horns pounced at her from her left as she lay prone having just finished binding another beast. She caught a glimpse of orange eyes and slavering jaws out of her peripheral vision and the words of Binding Spell One began to pour over her lips, even though she knew it was too late. Regret seared her, _I'm sorry Ichigo, I won't be able to make ammends for hurting you._

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the razor sharp teeth inched closer to her throat even as she began the command that would keep one more dark being out of the fight and perhaps save one last life. She was ready to die. She expected it. Death was an old friend to her. She'd dealt it often enough and seen it dealt to and by others; it held no fear for her. Every time she left on a call, she ran the risk of not coming back.

So it was perhaps understandable that she was surprised when the beast that had been mere moments away from tearing out her throat abruptly reversed direction with a centimeter wide hole in its chest. The retort of the handgun, the sound finally overtaking the bullet, prompted her back into motion. The last words of the binding spell flowed from her lips and a small green skinned monster fell to the ground, its arms tied into a pretzel behind its back. It was joined moments later by five others, the victims of her as yet unseen assistant.

Taking advantage of her enemies' surprise, she kicked herself back to her feet, and, reached around behind her back. She had no idea why she'd done it, but at the same time, she knew precisely why. Her left hand grabbed the wand firmly and a single word passed her lips. Fly!

XXXXX

To say that Duo Maxwell was not having a bad night would have been the understatement of the year, possibly of the decade. He had no idea where he was or what, by the Kami, the things that were chasing him were. He'd taken half a dozen of them down with his handgun, but they'd just stood the hell back up moments later. After taking gunshot wounds to the heart and lungs. He had no idea what the snakes had been doing to these people, but he doubted that even Shi no Yami could keep him safe for long if he was infected by whatever biological agent was working on them.

Duo, despite his years, was a very competent soldier. His path was clear. He went directly into what their new allies on Earth call E and E mode. Escape and Evade. Which was really hard since the damned things could aparently track him by scent! Taking to the roofs, however, seemed to throw them off a bit.

Then it happened. He had to notice the girl surrounded by a veritable army of the things. Duo's innate need to help people took over from there. Of course, this time he could make the excuse that he just wanted her to tell him how to kill the kami damned things and then make them stay dead, seeing as how there were something on the order of a dozen and a half bodies lying on the ground around her prone form. That could'a been fine. Shoot some bad guys, meet a pretty girl. But then she grew a big frickin' _Dragon's Wing _from her left arm and shot _fourty frickin' yards _into the air before he could blink. He had to admit, though, that her Japanese was court-perfect. Of course what she was saying was something else altogether.

Ruler, the mask of blood and flesh. All things of the Universe that fly; that which names all! Inferno and Pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! Path of Destruction Thirty-One: Red Flame Cannon! as she finished, a baseball-sized globe of red fire shot from her hight hand and impacted right in the middle of the mob of maybe-reavers.

_What the hell is this girl? A Dragon on steroids? Has that bastard Yu been doing gene splicing again? I thought he was too far gone to senility for that kinda stuff! _But before Duo can voice any of his questions, the girl rather abruptly dives toward the now clearing smoke, the wind from her wing helping dispell it, and grabs something from the ground. Suddenly, the wing shinks and disappears again while the lady begins to kill the few creatures that survived the fireball with the sword that she had recovered from the ground. Duo sighed, _Damn, I never could resist a pretty face. _He thinks as he jumps off of the third story roof and activates the Black Knife, forming it into a pair of batlike wings to slow his fall while pulling a long black piece of metal off of his back that had, before the spell, been an ordinary plastic staff. Duo had aimed his fall perfectly so that he would end up just behind one of the mutated beasts. When he was about six feet above the ground, he activated and swung the thermal scythe. Even as Duo hit the ground, the beast fell to the pavement in pieces from where the glowing green blade had bisected it from right shoulder to groin.

From there things devolved into a general melee for several moments and Duo lost sight of the mysterious girl as he took the head off of another one with his scythe as he dived under the dark wave. From then on, Duo only caught glimpses as time seemed almost to slow. To an outside observer, the Gundam pilot would almost seem to be surrounded by a glowing green shield. The Scythe in his hands moving too fast for the human eye to follow as legs and arms dropped to the ground, followed closely by the bodies of the creatures they had originally belonged to.

After what seemed like an hour, but had, in fact been only a pair of minutes, the creatures had had enough, and leaving the corpses of three dozen of their allies lying in a rough circle around the two combatants. After making sure that the beasts were actually retreating, Duo turned to examine his impromptu partner.

She'd be on the tall side for his own planet, but from what he knew of earth, she'd be just about average height. Assuming, of course, that they really were on Earth like he presumed. Her hair was short and pitch black like Heero's but her facial structure was much closer to his own Celtic heritage than the Asian that her hair and language suggested. Her clothes weren't any help either. The robe she was wearing was black and looked like silk, though the way that it had resisted the beasts' claws would seem to rule out that idea. Some sort of synthetic fiber? Again that would seem to point to earth. The blade that she had used was easily a match for Wufei's, and considering the armor the perhaps-reavers had been wearing/extruded was quite possibly better.

While he had been looking over her, she had been examining him and had apparently found him adequate. Pardon me, she asked in Japanese with a head-bob that was almost a bow, would you happen to know where we are? I find myself in this place with no idea how I came to be here.

I don't know either. Never seen this place before, he replied in the same language. Then, trying to feel her out continued, I've also never seen anybody that could grow a wing from her arm either, he added flatly with a cocked eyebrow.

For a moment she froze before she loosened up again. And I have never encountered someone with wings of shadow on his back. What are you? she demanded, trying to change the subject.

I could ask you the same question, Duo replied, heat in his voice. A scream, the volume lowered by the distance interrupted the impending argument. Duo ground his teeth for a moment before speaking again. Look, whatever issues we have with each other can wait. I am not willing to stand by and let these bastards kill innocent people. So a truce, at least until all of this is over. Whadda ya' say?

The other warrior nodded in affirmation. I am no more willing than you to see any innocents die. I am Kuchiki Rukia she added with the exquisite formality of the traditional tongue.

Duo decided to forgo the usual polite phrases and head straight to the point. After all, he was a gaijin. He could get away with it. Good to meet you Rukia, I'm Duo Maxwell. I run, I hide, but I never lie, he said with one of his trademark manic grins. Now I don't suppose you know where we should start? he asked, eyebrow cocked.

Rukia frowned and appeared to concentrate before opening her eyes and answering his question. There are two locations of spiritual power in this town. One is immense, but appears to be sealed, the other is smaller and more active. That is probably the one that is drawing these creatures here. If we were to neutralize it, the things it has called would probably be banished as well. This way, she concluded before leading a very confused Duo behing her.

_Oh well. One thing's for certain, I'm definitely not going to get bored._

XXXXX

Father Nightroad discharged his weapon for the fourth time in as many blocks and ducked to the side to reload the revolver from his diminishing amunition supplies. He never carried many rounds at the best of times, and he'd had less than forty on him at the beginning of the fight. After the last half-hour he was down to the six in his gun and one full reload. This wouldn't have bothered him much, except for the fact that even Tres's shots were less than totally effective. He was targeting hearts, brain stems, and cervical vertebra, but only half of what he hit stayed down.

The sheer number of vampires and what appeared to be demons was staggering. He didn't want to unleash the Crusnik here, but circumstances seemed to be leaving him little choice. He was, in fact, moments away from activating his nanomachines and creating a truly improbable amount of havok when the dozen creatures that had been trying to swarm Tres under were suddenly attacked from behind. Words were yelled in a language that Abel didn't know and a beam of white energy vaporized a vampire and blew a foot-wide hole in a second demon before expending the last of its energy on a second demon, this time only blasting halfway through its mass. This beam was immediately followed by a pair of teenagers smashing into the backs of the remaining demons and vampires with a sword and a glowing green-bladed scythe. And what they hit did stay down.

The one wearing black and what looked like an old fashioned priest's collar yelled over the melee, "Go for decapitations! That's the only way to kill most of them with guns!" Tres didn't bother to question him about the source of his information, he simply adjusted his aim and sent a pair of bullets into a demon's neck. The head popped off like the cork from a bottle of champaigne, and it too stayed down. Between the four of them, the six remaining demons stood no chance at all.

Once the demons were down though, Tres obviously decided that it was time for explainations. His/Her mechanical reactions controlled by a positronic energy-state brain that had been nearly science fiction at the height of Human technology Pre-Armageddon had his/her guns pointed at the pair before the last corpse hit the ground. This was not truly surprising to either priest. The fact that the youth with the scythe had a 9mm pistol pointed at Tres was somewhat more interesting.

Tres was used to being faster and more precise than what he fought against, and his/her surprise was obvious to someone who knew him, even in a female body. It was an effect of that surprise that the youth spoke first. "So what are you? Can't be a Jaffa, they don't let their women fight. So, are you some sort of new genetic engineering project?" he demanded imperiously a manic grin hovering on his lips.

Tres, as usual, did not respond well to demands. "Your lungs would be scattered over an area of approximately five cubic meters if I were to pull the triggers on these weapons. You are in no position to make demands," he/she commented in his/her usual cybernetic monotone.

"And my gun could put a bullet through your hindbrain longways. Not even a reaver could recover from that. I, on the other hand, can have new lungs courtesy of Shi no Yami after about three hours, and the seventeen or eighteen percent of each lung that would still be functioning can keep me alive for that long," he said with certainty.

A certainty which was shattered moments later. "My cranial armor is composed of 1.475 centemeter thick TitanSteel. A bullet of that calibur could not harm me," the assured alto stated.

Father Nightroad then did what he was best known in the AX for doing. He stepped in as mediator. Automatically falling into the role of peacemaker, he also slipped on his 'I'm harmless' mask. "Now, now, Tres, there's no need for those at the moment," he said, giving the priest a significant look. He turned back to the two unknowns with Fake Smile number Six on his face. "You must understand why Tres is suspicious though. We've found ourselves in an unfamiliar situation where our usual weapons are less than effective, and then two people who we don't know, one dressed like an old-fashoned priest, give us our opponents' weaknesses on the proverbial silver platter. Our luck usually isn't this good, and Tres is suspicious by nature," he finished with an apologetic smile. Both gun wielders looked at each other for a moment and something unspoken went between them before they both tucked their guns away. "Now I don't suppose that you know any more of what's happened here that you've told us already?" Father Nightroad asked without much hope for an answer. What he actually got surprised him.

The so far silent girl spoke up hesitantly. "That way," she said as she pointed down the street. "The epicenter is there. I can sense," she broke of and frowned as if looking for the right words, "a . . . taint there. Active and small, but chaotic in nature. The cause lies there," She concluded more firmly.

Abel was astonished and also slightly afraid. He had learned long ago that the only thing worse than a mission gone straight to hell was one where everything was going just right. Murphy always seemed to jump in when he was least expected. This made the former Lieutenant Colonel extremely nervous. He was, in short, waiting for the other shoe to drop and hoping it didn't turn out to be a steel-toed boot. Or an anvil.

XXXXX

Tres Iqus was a very confused Cyborg. That was the first problem and an even greater one than the fact that he aparently had a female body. His series were Androids; they had no organic components. Yet his positronic neural pathways were interlaced flawlessly with the body's organic equipment, and every now and again, he could almost see flashes of that other mind and access those memories that it contained.

As soon as Abel had drawn his attention to the fact that something was very wrong with his situation, Tres had run a full systems scan; what he had found was disconcerting. He had perfectly normal human bones, except for the fact that they were aparently coated in the peculiar alloy of Titanium and Steel that had been used as armoring over his more vital components. He did not have sufficient data to determine what that would do to a human's systems, but he doubted that cutting it off from its only way to replenish its blood supply would be advantageous. That could have spelled disaster for the cybernetic body that he now inhabited, except for the fact that his self-repair systems had aparently transferred over as well. His scan of them had taken almost a full second; the changes in them were rather drastic. The human body's entire lymphatic system appeared to have been removed in favor of a vast nanorepair network. Anywhere the human body traditionally had lymph nodes, his new body had nanorepair glands and massive compressed storage vacuoles containing things from mercury, iron, and arsenic to chyle and fatty acids. The nanorepair glands also appeared to function in the place of the normal immune system. If it were to be deactivated, his body would die shorly because its immune system had been irretrievably compromised by the nanites. Some of the other things his new body could do would bear thinking upon, but none were quite so drastic as these.

Tres activated his sensory enhancement protocols as the four of them began to move out. Switching between thermal and light gathering modes as he scanned the street for more hostiles. However, to his surprise, all of the demonic creatures that they had been fighting appeared to have melted into the woodwork. The closer they came to the shop, the more eerie the silence became. Every small motion seemed like an attack, and the Cybernetic priest suddenly found himself nervous for the first time in, well, his entire existence. That was what gave it away. "Some spell hides this place," Tres said, his female voice loud and startling in the unnatural silence. "Very subtle," he added in his ususal monotone, "none would go this way willingly," Abel nodded beside him, aparently catching on.

"You could only find this place if you already knew where it was!" he exclaimed as a great weight appeared to dissolve off of all their backs as the effects of the spell were negated by their realization of the truth of the matter. Abel turned to the black-haired girl. "How much farther is this place?" he inquired as they again took of, this time more quickly and with more confidence.

XXXXX

Ethan Rayne had a large smile plastered on his face as he began cleaning his shop up in preperation for moving to somewhere where a majority of the inhabitants wouldn't gladly fillet him. After all, it wasn't often that he had the opportunity to create such powerful chaos. _Only on a Hellmouth. _he thought, amused. _Tomorrow none of them will remember a thing. I can't believe how much they can simply supress what they don't want to remember._

However, all of his happy thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his front door being kicked down. _Damn. I didn't think that old Ripper would be here this soon. _He grimaced as he grabbed the .308 special he'd had stashed for this very eventuality. He wandered out the door into the front part of the store, "Hello Rippe- wait, who the hell are y-?" he managed to get out before a black-haired girl with subtly Asian features and a boy with a long brown braid attacked him, the boy taking the gun out of his hand with a well-placed chop, while the girl tripped him and began to speak in Japanese, one of the languages that he had never bothered to learn. He was surprised when his arms, aparently of their own volition, wrenched themselves uncomfortably behind his back. One of the two priests who had hung back stepped forward. Ethan didn't recognize her, but she looked almost like the girl who'd bought the costume. She was most probably an older sister.

"Answer, are you the cause of this disturbance tonight?" she asked in a voice that seemed unsuited to her frame, an alto, low and husky, where one would expect a light soprano.

"Why yes I am. Brilliant isn't it? The very embodiment of 'Be careful what you wish for,'" he smiled darkly at her, but it was the other who spoke.

"Be careful what you wish for? What do you mean?" the other priest asked.

Ethan was again surprised. "You mean you got here without figuring it out?" he laughed out loud. "All of you are nothing but the costumes these bodies wore for amusement on All Hallows Eve. Every person became what they dressed as."

The brown-braided boy stared down at him, anger written all over his face, "You mean that all those creatures we killed were nothing but transformed _children!_" He yelled as he grabbed Ethan by his lapels and dragged him up into the air.

_Oh bugger, _was Ethan's only thought before the boy propelled him at a truly incredible velocity into the ground. Ethan gave a cut off scream as one of his wrists snapped as it hit the unyielding floor. He gasped as the youth, purple eyes flaring lightly put weight on his balls with one reinforced boot.

"I will ask you only once, and then I will start breaking body parts. How do we stop this?"

Ethan looked into the boy's eyes and saw nothing but a long and painful death. "The bust of Janus, break it," he gasped out before the boot could press down any harder. Before he had even completed his sentence, however, the female priest had already put a pair of rounds from her pistols into the green glowing statue.

XXXXX

Gravity is a function of physical rules. When a coin drops from the top of a building, it is affected by gravity. It speeds up at a rate of almost ten meters per second per second. The study of these rules is called Physics and details how the physical world reacts to stimuli.

In the same way, magic has Metaphysical rules. One of them, is that combining magic results in Bad Things. Amy Madison, by casting a simple binding spell so close to the focus of the spell that empowered her magic, had already set changes into motion. Perhaps she would have retained some of Rukia's magic, perhaps her zanpakutō would have remained. With Chaos it is impossible to know what would have happened. Dawn's case, however, was somewhat different. Even if the night had ended and the spell had faded for everyone else, Dawn would have been changed irrevocably by the interaction of the Chaos magic with her own mysticl nature. Though the relatively weak magic of a human wizard could not alter her nature as the Key of Dagon, it did make her physical form easier to shape. This was made evident by the fact that Dawn, who had begun the night as a relatively short twelve year old was now five feet and nine inches tall with the frame of a generously, though not spectacularly endowed seventeen year old.

However, all of these interactions were minor compared to the infringement of the rule that followed. A pair of magical bullets, created by chaos, struck and destroyed the focus of the spell that created them. This was Not Good in an epic way. When the bullets destroyed the magical focus, it set up a causality feedback loop. The bullets couldn't have destroyed the focus because they didn't exist, but they must exist because they destroyed the focus. There were only three possible responses to this action according to Metaphysics and reality diverged down three paths to follow them.

First, the field created by the causal disturbance attempting to repair itself could have passed the critical point at which it was no longer able to contain the paradigm shift that had created it. The field, by this time streaching as far as Los Angeles, was polarized at the moment of collapse into the magical equivatent of Matter and Anti-Matter. The gigaton range detonation caused by the matter energy conversion approxamately 1.759 seconds after the bullets impacted cracked the planet open like an overripe melon.

Second, the imbalance could have been corrected by erasing the entire night and everything that had happened. In short, the bullets didn't exist because the spell was never cast, a twelve hour period lasting from sundown to about dawn the next day was simply missing from everyone's memories in the greater Sunnydale area as the Metaphysical laws patched over the gaping hole left in reality by the healing temporal continuum. And though Buffy and Giles attempts to uncover what had happened that Halloween are somewhat amusing, they are not the focus of this story.

Finally, the imbalance could have been corrected by going in the other direction. This is what happened in branch universe three. Instead of obliterating the entire night, it was brought into sharp relief for those closest to ground zero. Because the bullets destroyed the bust, they had to exist.

XXXXX

Xander groaned and sat up, holding his head and automatically adjusting his glasses. _I've been hit by bullets that hurt less than that! _This caused a sudden cessation of all mental function. _I've never been shot. _flashed through his mind even as he heard a groan from behind him.

A woman's voice spoke up, "Ugh, I feel like I just got run over by a horse," she said as she sat up and winced yet again. "Correction. A team of horses. And a wagon. Maybe a pair of oxen or two," She looked down at herself and was almost instantly on her feet. "What the hell!" she screamed as she took in the changes.

Xander, his eyes as wide as hers swallowed as tremulously asked, "Dawnie?" She looked up at him and Xander's hackles immediately jumped to attention, "Um, Dawn . . ." he said scooting back away from her on the ground as she advanced with a wide grin on her face. Which vanished as her eyes flew wide and she spun in a circle looking for something.

"Where are you? How dare you sa-" she cut off as her eyes, if possible got even wider and she fainted dead away. Xander reached up to pull of his silver wig as he went to her only to stop halfway. The wig refused to move, and trying to take it off was actively painful.

"Well shit," he said as he pulled his ponytail around and examined it. "I think this definitely counts as the other shoe."

He'd only just finished elevating Dawn's feet when he heard the other two people in the shop stirring. Jonathan and Amy both came back to consciousness at roughly the same time.

"What the hell hit me?" Amy asked as she sat up, Xander noticed that she was back in her schoolgirl outfit. She noticed Jonathan on the ground beside her and hit him lightly on the head. "Hey, wake up, baka!" she said jokingly before freezing in place her eyes wide and looking like she was seriously considering passing out again.

Jonothan merely murmured, "Go 'way Heero, 'm tryin t' sleep," before aparently remembering who he was and jerking awake, a look of panic in his eyes.

"I think that we all need to go somewhere and talk about this once Dawnie here wakes up," Xander said with forced calm from his place beside the no-longer-twelve year old. Both of them turned and stared at her.

Jonathan, channeling Duo rather strongly asked, "That's Buffy's little sister? Damn, X you are one lucky bastard," Amy immediately kicked him in the ass.

"You sexist scumbag!" and launched into Japanese to properly berate him. Xander just sat there, confused as he watched his two sorta friends whipsaw from almost totally Jonathan and Amy, to frighteningly Duo and Rukia for several minutes before they ran out of steam and all three ended up on the floor waiting in growing concern for the youngest, and oldest of them at the same time, to wake.

XXXXX

Dawn, meanwhile, was trapped in her own mind and not enjoying the experience.

"Let me out of here, now!" she demanded of the tall, brown-haired man in an identical copy of the priest's robes she had worn that night.

Calmly, as he had been for the entire time she'd been here he replied, "Not yet." When she seemed ready to go postal moments later he finally expounded, "I am attempting to reconfigure the cybernetic implants and skeletal-muscular enhancements to a more controlable level. You were not awake last time long enough to notice how much they were effecting you."

"What do you mean?" Dawn roared back. "You're some hallucination from tonight, or maybe a demon," she added, concentrating before giving in to the urge to punch things and hitting the cage she was standing in again. "Let me out!"

The priest ignored her for several moments before the aura of thought and concentration around him dissipated. "Firstly, I am not a hallucination. I am Father Tres Iqus of the Vatican's AX unit as of this moment, as the senior exsisting Deputy Enforcer of that unit in contact I am assigning myself to the Artificial Inteligence systems of Deputy Enforcer Dawn Summer, callsign Gunslinger, Cybernetic operative of the AX. My duties in that position will be as follows: the management of your implant functions until such time as you are able to use all of them, simultaneouslt, by yourself, tactical training and advising to you and the rest of your unit, chief of security for all AX digital systems, and secondary personality for AX Deputy Enforcer Dawn Summers. These orders are subject to change as needed by mission parameters," he concluded and dispelled the cage holding Dawn, who promptly fell down in surprise.

"In answer to your accusations, I am not a hallucination or a demonic entity. I restrained you because I could not risk you damaging AX operative Crusnik, as an unintentional consequence of attempting to couple with him," the AI somehow managed to look properly disapproving at the notion of premarital sex without ever shifting expression.

Dawn blushed beet red at the former Android's statement, "Hey! I may not have a lot of experience as far as . . . things like that go," she yelled, embarrassed, "but I know enough not to hurt the guy I intend to do them with."

"Indeed?" Tres asked raising an eyebrow. "Then I assume you were intending to lower the power output of you synthetic muscle fibers before you accidentally removed one of Father Nightroad's limbs?"

Dawn blanched at the accusation, made all the more effective because it was delivered in such a flat tone. She then paled further as what he'd said sunk in. "You mean he's not Xander? He's still possessed?" Dawn asked in horror.

Tres responded in his usual monotone. "Unknown. The other two children with you are displaying signs of both personalities. 'Xander' has done very little; however, characteristics not within Abel Nightroad's usual behavior have made themselves subtly evident." Dawn watched in unabating shock as a theater-sized screen appeared out of nowhere and replayed several snapshots of the previous minutes. "Father Nightroad would have displayed as much concern for the others as for you, he would not have taken the time to elevate your feet as a preventative measure until he knew that the others were not in worse condition, for example," he said as he showed the scene from an abstract third party location on the large screen.

This shocked a part of Dawn back to life, "Um, if I, well we, were unconscious for this, then how do you know what happened, seeing as how that," she indicated the screen, "Is not from my eyes?"

Tres looked at her and nodded almost approvingly, "You are not unconscious, I simply removed your mind from its position of control, as for the images, they are extrapolated based on data being relayed from your sensory nanites."

Dawn just blinked at that. "Oh," after a moment's consideration she came to a decision, "I guess you weren't lying about this, were you?"

Tres ignored her. The screen changed and she appeared to be looking out through her own eyes again.

XXXXX

Xander was the only occupant of the shop that didn't jump when Dawn abruptly sat up, vertical to the floor. "Systems at ninety-nine point nine seven five percent functionality, updates loaded. Restarting systems and exiting control override mode. Primary personality restored," Dawn said in the husky alto of earlier that night.

Immediately, Dawn blinked and almost fell over backwards before catching her balance and blinking at the three people staring at her. "What?" she asked in her usual tone.

XXXXX

Aight, that's it for the first chapter! So, whadda ya think? Good? Bad? Indifferent? Press that shiny button labeled review and let me know. I will endeavor to update this fic twice a month, but, for the moment, I want to concentrate on We Few, so no promises. And that's it! I'm goin' back to bed.


	2. The Demon Murphy

Wow. That's really all I can say.

I have never had this many reviews on a single chapter before. Hell, I have only a couple more reviews on a _three-_chapter story elsewhere on this site.

Thanks, and I'll try to reply to the ones I get for this chapter, I've been really bad about replying to reviewers, and that needs to stop. Anyway, for those of you who want spoilers on future abilities check out "worldwideweb dot wikipedia dot com" and search there for some pretty accurate analyses of character abilities. As before, for info on the incarnation of Duo appearing in this fic, read "Upon a Fiery Steed" on this site.

Also, for those of you waiting on chapter four of "We Few" I've got the first six pages done and the rest road mapped so I should have it done before the end of the month

As usual, if it's recognizable, then I don't own it. Please do not sue me, as I have nothing worth taking.

Now, without further interruptions, on with the Fic!

XXXXX

The Demon Murphy

They made it almost halfway to Amy's house, the only one of the four likely to be uninhabited, before Jonathan collapsed only semi-coherent on the pavement vomiting what felt like everything he'd eaten for the past week.

The others were right there. "Jono, you alright?" Xander asked, concerned.

"Yeah," the brown-braided young man said as he wiped his mouth. "This is a good sign. I think." He responded with a wince.

"You think?" Amy asked with concern as they helped him to his feet.

"Well, Duo only ever infected one person, and he really didn't have a terribly normal immune system," Jonathan answered distractedly.

Amy appears to be on the verge of exploding at Jonathan, the question is on her lips when Xander interrupts. "Wait until we get to your place. We'll all need some time to think about this before we're ready to play twenty questions," he says calmly. "Can you walk that far, or do you need Dawn to carry you?" the silver-haired young man asks with a grin that's pure Xander. Using humor to defuse tensions and distract people from their worries came as naturally as breathing. _Just as natural as Father Nightroad's forced clumsiness. _Xander's rebellious mind threw at him. And that was digging a bit too deep too quickly. _The priest hid what he was by being a klutz. What does that say about you? _He forced himself to not think about it.

Xander would have been making the next joke already, helping to keep his companion's minds off of their own internal troubles. But that was before Halloween and the memories. And he could already feel the barriers, which held them back, failing. The mental techniques he'd found in Giles's books that had held the remnants of the Hyena separate from his conscious mind for months without a shudder were . . . leaking under the pressure. Little pieces of memory were slipping through in a steady stream. He knew from his experience in the days after the Hyena incident, before the wards were strong enough to restrain it fully, that he needed several hours of sleep to begin sorting it. He didn't know why, but for some reason, building filing cabinets out of grass on the Serengeti in his dreams seemed to help. As they walked in further silence, each examining his or her own mind, he wondered idly what he'd dream of this time. _Maybe building filing cabinets out of rock on Mars? _Came the sardonic thought, melding Xander's stubborn resistance and dry sense of humor with the Vampire Priest's memories and fears.

Xander was brought back to the physical world abruptly as he noticed Jonathan begin shaking. It wasn't anything obvious, but trained reflexes slipped the scythe from its carrier into his left hand, providing stability for unsteady legs. He shared a quick glance with Dawn and Amy. Something was definitely wrong. And more than just simple exhaustion.

After looking at him for a moment and sharing a glance with Amy, Xander speaks up. "Dawn? Carry Superman over there so he doesn't give himself a concussion when he faints and hits the ground," Jonathan immediately shoots a glare at the now silver-haired youth. However, in the process of turning to lay the death glare on the other male in the group, he loses his balance and starts to go over backwards. Dawn and Xander with Amy not far behind immediately rush over and grab him before he can hit the pavement.

As Jonathan was fading out of consciousness he grabbed hold of Dawn's arm and managed to whisper two words, "No hospitals," That was about the time that he blacked out entirely.

XXXXX

As soon as Jonathan passed out, the others had hauled ass to Amy's place, which was as empty as promised with her dad away on business. Xander was feeling winded even with his nanites operating in standby mode, Amy was sucking for air after the run despite Rukia's excellent physical condition, Dawn, however, didn't even seem to be breathing hard as she set Jonathan down on the couch.

As soon as Amy had the breath to ask, she turned to Xander and demanded, "Alright, you know the most about Anime, what happened to Duo that could cause _this_!?"

Xander considered for a moment before he answered, "I really don't know. I never really liked Gundam Wing, that was more Jessie's" the word caught in his throat, " . . . thing. The only thing that I can think of is that its related to whatever that the Mad Five did to make him able to pilot a Gundam." Xander shrugged apologetically, "I've seen most of the series, but I never saw Endless Waltz and I've never read Episode Zero, so I don't know much about the background," when Amy appeared ready to launch into another question, Xander raised his hand to cut her off, "Look, we aren't going to make sense of this tonight, we're all worn out. Get some sleep and we can discuss this in the morning," he glanced at Jonathan, "And hopefully, sleeping beauty over there'll be awake,"

Amy wasn't exactly happy with the situation, but she also couldn't argue with it. She directed Dawn to her Dad's room and found a sleeping bag for Xander before she came back to the living room and tucked a blanket around Jonathan's still form. After that, she just stood and watched him for a time before she shook herself and stumbled off to her room. After the events of the night, sleep was surprisingly quick in coming.

XXXXX

As soon as Dawn closed her eyes she found herself back in the strange not-quite control room that the priest had held her in earlier. She was momentarily surprised to find it empty, and took the chance to look around a bit.

The area she thought was the command deck was empty. Elevated above the rest of the room, it seemed almost forbidding somehow, while, at the same time, it was no different in any real way from anything else in this strange dream world. She couldn't see much of it from the floor, but if the strange readouts on the rest of the walls and the various consoles were any indication, it probably held controls and displays that she wouldn't understand, and, in truth, didn't care to. For the next few minutes, she wandered through the rows of chair-less consoles, hoping to see something that she understood. Other than a few machines that reminded her of the MRIs and stuff that she'd seen on TV, she really had no idea what she was seeing.

After making a couple circuits of the room, Dawn was feeling incredibly bored, but before she could decide whether or not to go exploring on her own, a door she hadn't even seen on the right side of the room rotated open. Tres Iqus walked through as the panel shifted shut behind him.

Dawn, trying to play cool, though the situation was making her more than a little nervous, inquired, "So what brings you to the neighborhood?" before reconsidering her question and demanding. "On second thought what and where is this place and how do I get out of it?"

Tres' head cocked to the right approximately one degree and his left eyebrow rose fractionally. "Good evening, Miss Summers." He said in his usual monotone before turning and heading up the stairs to the balcony.

Dawn's jaw dropped. _Oh he did _not _just blow me off. _

Tres, resolutely ignoring the now ranting Dawn, stands before the central console and begins typing at the controls at a furious pace. Dawn, overcoming her nerves, climbs the circular staircase, a childish part of her hoping that Tres would at least react to someone screaming in his ear.

_A childish part. _Before the sun went down, she never would have thought that. She was twelve. She was a child. She had a right to be childish.

Dawn's eyes widened in horror as the control room shattered around her. Her mind was suddenly filled with a life she hadn't lived, as memories were integrated piece by agonizing piece into her consciousness. It was, perhaps, a perversity of chance that she didn't pass out until after the process was complete.

XXXXX

Now alone in the strange not-quite control room, Tres sighed minutely and immediately set in on his next self-appointed task. Dawn's presence forced him to recall the girl Elise from one of his early missions against the Order of Rosen Creuz. The comparison was . . . distracting. He only hoped that she would be as fortunate as the young tactile telepath had been.

Tres frowned microscopically as more impossible data streamed across the visual interface of his cybernetic eyes. The girl's mind had survived the integration process intact as anticipated. In fact, the pain she had experienced was well below what he had expected. Even inside this strange biological-digital-spiritual realm, the shock should have been damaging. Tres removed an item from his work queue as its completion became unnecessary. A mind that should have required three-point-four-seven-five hours of repairs was resting easily, the memories of pain fading to an indistinct blur as all such memories do. If he had been organic, Tres would have had a hard time keeping his mouth closed. As an android, he simple filed the information and moved on.

The separate set of memories that I inserted into her mind would have left Father Nightroad less than entirely sane for several hours. Her resilience is unprecedented. Another set of observations, as well as possible causes were filed. He did not have a likely solution yet, indeed, the best percentage for an accurate answer for the unknown variable was at less than a thousandth of a percent; however, after the impossible had been eliminated, one of the resulting variables had to be correct. He simply required more data. 

With the need to divert nanites to restoring positronic-neural connective systems eliminated, Tres moved quietly along to the next queued directive and resumed his cell-by-cell scan of Dawn Summers' body. The chaos magic that had created him had been surprisingly thorough, but he had already discovered four hundred twenty-nine thousand, two hundred and twelve faults in her systems that would have to be repaired at a molecular level.

Inserting new items into his list of directives, Tres still diverted a tiny portion of his awareness to analyzing the walking conundrum that was Dawn Marie Summers.

XXXXX

Xander awoke to find himself staring at hard vacuum. Instinctive reaction had him drawing a breath in a feeble attempt to hold onto a few more milliseconds of life before the gaping void drew the air from his lungs. About three seconds later, when he realized that he wasn't dead, Xander let the air back out. He reached forward tenuously, half afraid that if he moved, his inexplicable reprieve would be revoked. Less than a foot in front of his face, his hand abruptly stopped. _Glass?_

"Beautiful, isn't it?" a familiar voice asked from behind him. Xander whirled automatically backing up against the view port of the ship or space station. Only to stop in surprise and no small amount of fear as he looked upon a face that a part of him swore he'd never seen before while another argued that he saw every morning in his mirror. "I'm sorry to have startled you," the serious, almost somber, face breaks into a small smile. "Normally I'd introduce myself, but I suppose that's kind of unnecessary,"

Xander grinned for a moment at the wry humor before he caught himself. "I suppose this is the part where you take over my body like the Hyena did?" Xander asks, settling in for a fight that he knows he can't win, not against someone/thing that could tear down his best mental barriers in less than a day. However, before he can finish the question, the figure is already shaking his head.

"I have no intention of harming you," he said in answer, "And I haven't torn down your barriers. You are tearing them down even as you build them up."

"Yeah, as if I'd let _another _possession wander around inside my head even subconsciously. Pull the other one. It has bells on it," Xander snarled back, looking for the trap. The Hyena had tried it enough in the early days before he'd managed to shut him up for good; he wasn't about to fall for that trick here.

The priest shook his head ruefully, "You don't understand, do you? I'm not a possession. I'm not far separated from that subconscious that you were just jesting about."

Xander quirked an eyebrow at that, "Then why does my subconscious sound vaguely British?"

The maybe-not-possession glared at him with pursed lips and rolled its eyes slightly before speaking. "You and the character that you dressed as are very similar." The projection explained using small words and generally behaving as if he was talking to a nitwit. _Which, _Xander considered, _actually does argue that this is me I'm talking to. In the anime, Father Nightroad was always calm and respectful, even when people were pissing him off. _"Like attracts like." A magnet and some small pieces of iron appeared on a table that he was sure hadn't existed the previous instant before they snapped together. "Magnetism is a physical principal. This is magic. If you persist in trying to keep him out, you'll end up killing yourself."

Xander looked at what he was now convinced was a part of his mind that desperately needed a rubber room in shock. "There is no way you're suggesting what I think you're suggesting," he said as he pointed a finger at the Nightroad look-alike. It nodded. Xander rebelled. In horror, he turned and tried to run, only to find himself pressed up against the thin-seeming glass between safety and space. He watched in horror as the first cracks started to form.

"This view isn't just for looks, you know." The other said from where it stood, unmoving. "You're at a very real crossroads here. You stand upon the edge of a knife, and if you lean either way, you'll fall. 'Course, if you stand still, you're just as dead as if you chose wrong." Xander glared at him as he turned back around.

"Okay, you're my psyche. Tell me what this place means then. I know I paid enough attention in Psych class to know that dreams like this are symbolic," the brown haired teen said gesturing to the station around him. His other nodded.

"This room is your choice. The options you've got. Out there," he pointed at the stars, "is hard vacuum, explosive decompression, and death. The door," he said pointing back over his shoulder to a barred door that hadn't been there previously, "is you're way out. All you have to do is take the bar out and open it." Seeing the look on Xander's face, the other elaborated. "Your mind is breaking from the strain of trying to hold back magic and almost a millennia of memories that it _wants _to integrate. Keep the walls up, and you die. Take them down, and you live." It concluded with a shrug.

Xander swallowed roughly, "And the choice I have is letting someone else walk around in a Xander Suit for the rest of my life-?" he stopped at the negative headshake.

"Do you really think that Abel Nightroad would do that to you? Besides, the possession is over. The spell ended. All that's left is memories." That didn't leave quite the sour taste in his mouth that being possessed would have, but it still stuck in his craw. A sickening crack sounded behind him. "In any case, you ain't got much time left." The phantom began to fade from view. "One last thing," the apparition spoke as it vanished, "refusing to chose is also a choice,"

Xander stood for a moment, feeling lost. If he let those memories in, the changes that he somehow knew would come with them, he wouldn't be Xander anymore. He'd be something else, something Other. Could he handle that? Could he live with remembering, or perhaps not remembering what he'd been like before one supposed-to-be-quiet All Hallows Eve?

Another crack sounded behind him, the loudest yet as the spider's web of faults fan across the window. Another set of images floated in front of his eyes. Buffy with the Master, the Jessie-Vampire in the Bronze the night of the Harvest, the Incan Mummy.

If he hadn't been there, who would have stopped them? How many innocents would die if he wasn't there the next time? At the heart of his being, Alexander LaVelle Harris was a Paladin, a White Knight. He would sooner die than let anyone under his protection fall in his place. In the end, there was only one road that he could possibly take.

Overcoming his fear, Xander made his choice.

XXXXX

In the space between worlds, a glowing figure looked down at the boy sleeping on his friend's floor. He'd had to skirt the very edge of truthfulness there. _That one has a strong will. _They all did, to a degree. The boy Jonathan's was weaker than the others, but, despite the more objectionable aspects of Duo's personality, he was a good fit for the boy. _Strong willed and stubborn, but with a loyal streak wide as the Rift. _He would be a crucial player on the world's stage, as humans reckoned such things.

_A strange irony_, the being thought, _that those four youths, focuses of Chaos that they are, will do more good in their lifetimes than those attempting to enforce their silly 'Balance' have done in a millennia. _After all, Discord could not be allowed in the Chorus. It had to be contained and eliminated. _Even such low energy-spirit beings should have learned that by now._

The figure watched for several more moments, just to make sure that its charge would be safe. It had been granted a great blessing in being allowed to see His plan for these young mortals, and even seeing those few strands of the Tapestry had come close to breaking its mind. Joy swept through its being then, that it served a fair and benevolent King who planned for each of His creations so. The figure smiled to itself as it once again reviewed what its Lord had showed it. _Be glad, all four of you. Great adversity lies ahead, but great joy also. _The winged being stood, then, and departed its place in the Void Between. Much as it would have loved to observe these four who had been singled out by the Master's hand, it had other duties equally enjoyable Above. Still, it would return, as often as it could, and not simply because it was its duty. The boy Alexander would be a joy to watch. He certainly lived up to his name.

A single phrase echoed in a silver-haired teen's dreams as he slept. _The Blessing of the Lord be upon you Alexander. May you find all that which you seek. _As the voice echoed, the dark's terrors lifted from the boy's shoulders and he slipped into a more restful sleep. Feeling, in his heart of hearts, that he had nothing to fear that night. For the first time since his youth, Xander Harris slept easy.

XXXXX

Dawn came entirely too soon for Amy Madison. Being stung awake by sunlight coming in through her bedroom window less than six hours after she had finally gotten to sleep was not the way that she'd wanted to begin her day. After deciding that the sun probably wasn't going to reverse directions just for her, Amy finally gave up on going back to sleep and sat up. Walking softly down the hallway Amy discovered, to her irritation, that she was apparently the only one up. _Figures. It's my house and I'm the only one awake. Oh well, at least I get first crack at the shower. _Amy wandered into the bathroom, and, after taking care of the usual morning necessities, proceeded into the shower for a nice hot wash.

For years after her mother and father had divorced-and before the body-stealing incident- water had been her refuge. Whether it was swimming laps in a pool, or taking a long soak in the bathtub, water had always seemed to calm her a bit, enough, at least, to be able to sort through her problems. This morning though, she found the cascade around her hardly comforting. She remembered what sh-Rukia. It had been Rukia, not her-had done the night before, and shuddered. _How many families are wondering what happened to their children this morning? How many other teens did we kill last night? _She wondered as tears mingled with the passing water. The fact that the others had been trying to kill them at the time really didn't enter into it; she had killed people. With fire and lightning and sword, she had ended the lives of _children_.

_How am I any better than my mother? She might have done some temporary damage, but she never _killed_ anyone. _Even if she counted trying to kill Buffy, her own body count dwarfed her mother's. Even assuming that three quarters of the "demons" the night before had been legitimate monsters, she'd murdered almost a dozen innocent people.

For easily understood reasons, she cut her customary half-hour soak short.

Upon leaving the bathroom, she discovered that there was still no one awake, so after checking to make sure Jonathan was okay, she wandered into the kitchen with the vague idea of making breakfast.

Amy sighed and looked toward the living room as her hands moved of their own accord. She was really worried about the now-braid-wearing teen. Seeing him after the fighting had stopped the night before had been something else. What she had gained from the body switching episode-namely an incredible figure and the urge to keep it- Jonathan had gained from Duo. In spades. He'd easily picked up an extra six inches and had kept approximately the same weight, which on a now larger frame, with more muscles, meant that the formerly pudgy young man had abruptly spiked to about an eight on the hotness meter. Seeing him pass out like he'd done had not been an enjoyable experience.

By this time the smell of cooking was starting to permeate the rest of the house and she could hear the faintest of stirrings from the living room and her dad's room as Xander and Dawn began to stir. However, when she checked on Jonathan while the rice and _miso_ were cooking and the fish was thawing slowly in the microwave, she was disconcerted to see that he was still deeply asleep.

Nevertheless, she went back to the kitchen and momentarily regretted the lack of seaweed and _umeboshi_ or _nattō_ for the rice before deciding to add some pickled beets that her dad had bought in preperation for Thanksgiving. _Oh well, an egg and some soy sauce will do as well. _Tamago kake gohan_ shouldn't hurt the _gaijin_'s_ _stomachs._

Quickly boiling some eggs to add to the beets, Amy's thoughts once again slid towards Jonathan. Their friendship had been fading even before her mom had taken to wearing an Amy suit and finally destroyed it once and for all. Once she got her body back, Amy had never felt the time was right to try and make ammends. Courtesy of her mom's influence, she was now accepted by some of the more popular kids; it was nice not to be the reject for once, and she had been afraid that making overtures to one of the out crowd would ruin that. As she set up to steam the thawed fish _Fresh is so much better than frozen _she came to the conclusion that she needed to try, even if it proved to be impossible.

_I never should have let it get this far in the first place. _she thought as a search of the cupboards turned up some green tea. One sniff told her that it was the Americanized version of the drink, but even American green tea was better than that pitiful excuse for a drink the English made, or-Kami_ forbid_-coffee. As she began to boil water for her awakening guests she checked the vegetable stock that she'd dissolved what little _miso_ paste she had found into and made sure that the onions, mushrooms, tofu, and potato pieces weren't being overcooked. She'd wished for some _daikon_, but there hadn't been any, neither had there been buckwheat flour for the _soba_ she'd originally intended to make. It appeared that her first meal hosting her friends would be a dish short, which was irritating; it seemed a shopping trip would be in order for later in the day. _If the _Kami _are merciful, the _gaijin _won't notice, _she didn't count on it though, and coming up short on her first time as a hostess was agravating. _Miyabi_ demanded better. _Serving plain _soba _would have been bad enough, but to have a dish missing entirely? _She frowned as she monitored the fish's progress even as she added the tea leaves to the water. Satisfied that the food was as good as she could manage with her currently limited resources, she began to prepare the table settings and had even managed to cobble together a replacement for the missing _hashioki _before Xander and Dawn wandered into the room.

Both blinked and looked at the ornate place setting's on the table, and more importantly at the food filling the bowls and plates. Xander was the first to speak. "Uh, Amy, not that I'd turn down free food or anything, but aren't _breakfast_ dished traditionally served for breakfast?"

Amy frowned at the aparent non sequitor, and examined the place setting nearest her. _Rice bowl on the left, soup bowl on the right, fish steamed with lemon zest and _shōyu _with a light horseradish flavor at the center_, she concentrated, wondering what the problem was. The eggs, cooled in ice water and colored a light lilac from the brine they had been soaking in had been neatly sliced to expose the yolk and were in the back on the right, and the beets themselves were in the back on the left. Nothing was wrong with the picture, which, she abruptly realized, was precisely what was wrong.

She had never tasted _nattō _in her life, but she could recall the destinctive nutty flavor of the fermented soybeans easily. She had never made a Japanese place setting, she had never even heard of _umeboshi_, and she couldn't stand the taste of Soy sauce. Breakfast for her would have normally consisted of slighly charred bacon and lumpy pancakes, certainly nothing like the feast that she'd created. A part of her was cringing in discomfort, while a second felt that she should simply go along with it, and a third was screaming bloody murder. The third won out.

"I am going to hunt down and _kill _Ethan Rayne if it is the last thing I ever do!" She screamed at the top of her lungs as both Dawn and Xander momentarily fell back before her obvious wrath. _No, my life isn't complicated. Not at all._

XXXXX

His first impression upon returning to consciousness was _noise_. Lots of noise. That level of noise around him before his first cup of coffee was generally a Bad Thing, and he reacted accordingly. "Damnit Heero! Can't you avoid pissing Relena off 'till at least noon?" he roared as he threw the covers off and got to his feet, absently checking his braid to make sure it was alright. _Wait a minute, that didn't sound like Relena, and it sure as hell wasn't Sally. What the fu- _and he remembered. As his mind caught up with past events, his body's discomfort made itself known. He was slowly sitting back down to try and sort out the mess running around inside his head when his three companions in the wierdness of last night turned the corner.

Amy spoke first with the sort of concern that she hadn't shown for him in more than a year, "God, Jonathan, are you alright? You scared the hell out of us last night!" it was suddenly as much as he could do to keep from breaking into mildly histerical laughter. _Shi no Yami integrating? I can't immagine how anyone could find _that _nervewracking. _A sideways smile slid onto his lips.

"Well, since I'm not dead, yeah, I'll be fine," he said as he struggled to his feet. "Let me have something with caffine in it and some food and I'll be alright,"

Xander, seeing how shaky he was on his feet immediately attempted to veto the idea. "No way. Bedrest until you can stand without your knees giving way-"

"Knees aren't weak, _Shi no Yami_ just hasn't finished with my nerves yet. My central nervous system needs to catch up with the peripheral nervous system, and my muscles need time to catch up with my reflexes," Jonathan interrupted as he walked carefully toward the bathroom, trying to make sure that he didn't trip over his own feet, or try to lift the second while the first was still in the air. At their confused looks, he elaborates, "_Shi no Yami_ crosses the blood-brain barrier and infiltrates the cells there. I've got my memories and muscle memory of how to walk, and Duo's memories, and neither set is right at the moment because my synapses are firing at different speeds," the last said as he closed the bathroom door.

Outside the other three looked at each other, clearly not understanding what Jonathan was trying to spell out for them. Xander recovered first, to smell of food draving a rumble from his stomach that had Amy grinning as she cocked an eyebrow at him. "Well, you were nice enough to make us breakfast, Amy, so lets not let the food get cold. The three entered the dining room followed closely by an appreciative Jonathan as he took a deep breath in through his nose.

"Ooohhh steamed fish," he said as he dropped less than gracefully into a chair and immediately picked up his chopsticks like he knew how to use them. "And _tamago kake gohan _too." he continued as he used the chopsticks to grab some of the rice dish. "Do you use soy saunce with the egg, or not?" he asked before he popped the food into his mouth.

"You know what this is?" Dawn asked as she stared at the contents of her plates and bowls dubiously while trying to position the chopsticks and not having much luck.

"Are you kidding?" Jonathan responded, "Japanese cuisine is the only way to go for breakfast. I used to like Western stuff, but Heero got me hooked on this years ago," he added, finding nothing incongruous about the statement. The dead silence had him looking up from his bowl of _miso _soup. "What?" he asked "Oh _Kami_, is there something wrong with my hair?" he asked as he flipped his braid up over one shoulder to examine it. Jonathan abruptly realized what he'd done and stopped fussing with his hair ties. The rest of the meal passed in fairly comfortable silence after a short lesson to Dawn and Xander on the art of chopsticks. Though they weren't used to the idea of fish, soup, and rice for breakfast, they found the food was truly enjoyable.

Amy mostly wondered how the hell she'd done it while tasting, for the first time, something that her mind told her she'd had hundreds of times before.

Jonathan wolfed down his portion of the food with absurd speed and then sat and slowly and repeatedly sipped at the green tea and grimaced. The silence lasted until perhaps a half hour after the last pair of chopsticks were put down. Dawn had spent most of her time staring at a wall, aparently deep in thought, while Xander had his head layed back idly fingering a bullet from his gun, and Amy played with her hair and appeared to be attempting to make a rock garden in her rice bowl.

Jonathan couldn't take it any more. "Amy," he began and startled the others, his voice loud in the silence, "please tell me that you have something in this house with caffine in it?"

Amy frowned at the request before attempting to make a Xanderesque joke. "You said something about that earlier, is Duo a secret caffine addict or something?"

Jonathan shot her an unreadable look. "Let me have some coffee and I'll tell you." A thourough search of the house didn't turn up any coffee, but Amy did have some diet pop on hand and Jonathan pronounced that adequate. After downing two cans of the stuff in rapid sucession, Jonathan led the whole group into the living room, a third diet cola in hand.

Amy, still anxious about what had caused one of her oldest friends to pass out the night before finally asked the question that she'd wanted answered previously. "What happened to Duo that made you sick like that, and why are you better so quickly?"

Xander nodded in agreement. "As bad as you were last night I didn't expect you to be up and about like this for a few days yet,"

Jonathan nodded in understanding, "To be frank, I'm surprised I'm not horizontal right now. For some reason the infection seems to have proceeded way more quickly than it should have." By the end of his sentence, his comrades are looking at him with distinct unease.

Dawn interrupts, "You mean, like, a contagious disease? As in germs?"

Jonathan's grin is obviously a channeling of Duo. Wide and maniacal. "Nah, _Shi no Yami _isn't contagious," a small snort of laughter escapes the obviously amused teen, "Not unless you get real creative." A frown breaks across his face for a moment. "Look, I'll start from the beginning here and try to include everything, but the whole thing's sort of complicated." He breakes for a deep breath.

"First of all, I got two full sets of memories from last night," this statement very nearly results in a flood of questions, but Jonathan simply steemrolls over their objections. "My idea of Duo aparently conflicted with the spell's intention, at least, that's the only answer I've been able to come up with. I'd been reading some fan fiction lately from that show Wormhole Extreme, and I came across a Gundam Wing crossover. Anyway, I was thinking about that when the spell hit last night. I've got a mixed bag of memories and, some technical knowledge from the Gundam Wing Duo, but most of what I've got is from the other Duo. That Duo," he continued with a deep breath, "was a member of one of the planet Sanq's five Guardian Strains. Specifically he was a _Shinigami_. For you two," he indicated Dawn and Xander, "_Shinigami_ means 'little god of death' he was the host to a really nasty bug called _Shi no Yami_. That means, roughly 'shadow death'. Anyway, one of the Morrigu decided that exposing whole colonies to plagues was lots of fun, so, she'd dust an area of the colony with this nastly little bug that really resembled a Terran slime mold. And nine in ten people would drop dead in their tracks, eaten from the lungs and their vascular system. If you managed to survive that, you got this really interesting cancer, or one of several other things. In any case, it wasn't plesant. The real kick in the ass though, was that one out of ten. They were carriers, and after a while this nastly little parasite would drive them absolutely bug house nuts, and they'd break and start killing."

The story, by now, was eliciting gasps from the ladies and moderately queasy looks from Xander. Jonathan recalled the last time "he'd" explained the story and carried on, "Then after a few decades, something went wrong. Maybe a slow day at the mad scientist's lab, maybe they just got complacent, but a batch of the stuff reverted to near wild type. And wild type _Shi no Yami _doesn't kill its host, it doesn't spread by air, and it doesn't put its home in a mental institution."

"Shinigami," Xander guessed.

Jonathan, again channeling Duo, smiled wryly, "Got it in one. _Shi no Yami _works its way all throughout the host's body and insinuates itself into everything down to the host's genetic code. By now, I literally have _Shi no Yami _in my genes as though I was born with it, my bone marrow produces more of it, and my body considers it just another variety of lymphocite. The reason why I'm so wobbly is that it goes for the nerves last, and the blood-brain barrier isn't exactly easy to get across. In about a week, I'll have better reflexes, and better hand-eye coordination than any normal human ever born."

All of the others look suitably impressed at the statement. "However, this all comes with downsides."

Amy jumped in, "You mean the caffine?"

Jonathan smiled, "That's one. _Shinigami_ have to have caffine to function. We can synthesize it in our bloodstreams if we have to, but that tends to make us really cranky, and we need to feel the wind." Everyone looked puzzled by that, so Jonathan continued, "_Shi no Yami _may not be airborne anymore, but its instincts still say 'go to air.' It takes several days before we get twitchy, and it takes almost a week before the paranoia starts to set in, but we do need to be around moving air."

Everyone waited a moment to take everything in. "Wait a minute!" Amy broke in, "How'd you do the wings then?" she asked while Dawn and Xander looked at her like she was nuts.

Jonathan blinked in surprise, "I guess I did forget that part, sorry I-Duo-only ever had to give the whole speal once. The wings were _sgean dubh_."

Amy frowned. "That's not Japanese,"

This time the translation came from a different source, "It's Welsh, I think," Xander said from his place in the rocking chair. "The . . . dark knife?" he asked.

The self-titled _Shinigami _nodded, "Pretty close. We actually translate it as 'black knife,' but po-taytoh, po-tahtoh,"

"So, you can really fly?" Dawn asked eagerly.

Jonathan grinned again. "'Course. Not for very long though, _sgean dubh _takes a lot out of us. It's a lot like sprinting uphill, and having your wings disappear when you're fifty feet in the air makes for a bad day."

Dawn grimaced imagining the results of that particular accident.

"So what about the rest of you?" Jonathan asked. Silence greeted the question. "Ah, c'mon, I told you!"

Amy, Xander, and Dawn traded glances before Amy sighed and began to speak. "I can't just call up a memory and have it there like you apparently can, but . . . it's like I grew up speaking and reading Japanese. When I need it, it's just there. Same with the cooking. As long as I wasn't concentrating on it, it seemed perfectly natural. It's only when I stopped and thought about what I was doing that I realized how weird it was." She stopped for a minute and frowned. "I wonder if I can still use a sword," she trailed off, frowning in thought.

"Maybe," Xander said, "we'll have to check with Giles later and see if we can borrow one of his," Xander shook his head. "Anyway, I've got all of Abel's memories and I can . . . well, see them like I suppose Jonathan can, but I also seem to have picked up a lot of Nightroad's habits."

Jonathan's left eyebrow went up, "Like what?"

"The fact that I instinctively scanned this room when I walked into it probably counts. And the fact that I can take this gun apart, clean it, and reassemble it less than a pair of minutes definitely does." Xander shrugged. "There's other stuff, but those are the high points." Xander concluded.

"Damn," Jonathan said, "I think I've still got the weirdest though."

That is when Dawn chose to speak up, "I have a _male _android living in the back of my head," everyone looked at her.

The world's only _Shinigami_ just stared at her for a moment. "I withdraw my previous statement,"

"Anyway, Tres has a lot of ideas, and I think some of them are worth listening to." Dawn frowned for a moment before looking at the ceiling and yelling, "Yes, I said some! I haven't decided about the rest yet . . . No I don't particularly care that you aren't upstairs, I'll direct my comments wherever I chose to direct them," When she looked back down, she found the rest of the gang looking at her like she was a loon. "Oh, don't you start." She said as Xander opened his mouth, a quip obviously on his lips. The quelling glare directed at him convinced him that, this time at least, silence was the better part of valor.

"Anyway, Tres has been pitching a continual fit about how inefficient our slaying tactics are, and his opinion of my sister's prejudices is close to blasphemy,"

It was at this point that Jonathan interrupted, wide-eyed. "You mean that those things weren't just a Halloween thing? I mean, magic I can get. It's not that far remover from Quatre's empathy or Fei-Fei's pyrokinesis, but there are really _demons_ that hang out in this town?" All of the others turned to stare at the surprised _Shinigami. _

"Um, sorry," Dawn said, "I guess we just sort of assumed that you'd know." Dawn looked at Xander questioningly.

Xander sighed at the look before attempting to launch into Giles's spiel, "Uh, how does the G-man put it? The world is older than you know, and, unlike popular belief, it did not begin as a paradise. Demon ruled this world for eons. They made it their home, their hell. However, eventually, they lost their grip on this reality and the way was cleared for mortal animals and for man. Now, there are only certain traces or vestiges of the Old Ones, certain magics and items of power. And the slayer. One girl in all the world, one born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires to stop the spread of their evil, and so on and so forth. Basically we live in a town built on a portal to a hell dimension. Buffy is the slayer, and it's her job to kill demons and keep the portal shut. She, in turn, is controlled by a society of arrogant Brits with authority problems and a serious thirst for power." Xander gave the _Shinigami_ a sideways smile, "I guess that it's kind of a lot to take it, huh?"

Jonathan frowned for a moment, "Actually, that sorta explains some things I've seen around here. It's kinda like that spell last night. As though something didn't want me to notice what I'd been seeing all along," Jonathan shakes his head and focuses in on Dawn, "So what does Tres have to say about hunting the hunters?"

Dawn frowned for a moment as she organized her thoughts, "Well, his first point is that we need to change the way that we dress when we go out hunting. He says that dark clothes and jackets should be the order of the day, or rather, night."

Xander appeared to get the point of that. "So we blend in with the background better, right?" he asked.

"Yeah," Dawn responded, "but not only that. If we dress like the Vampires do, the priest thinks that normal people would repress seeing us just like they do actual Vampires. He's trying to figure out if it's the Hellmouth's presence that's doing it, or some sort of area affecting spell, but either way it ought to help camouflage us from human and undead alike," Dawn waits momentarily for the rest of the group to mull the idea over before continuing.

"Second, he thinks we should do away with 'those inefficient, ineffective patrols' and simply stake out, no pun intended, the trouble spots, like the Bronze and the most frequently used graveyards after we take care of the newbies each night. With the six of us, we'll have every third day off and we'll have at least decent coverage of the worst areas,"

It was at this point that Jonathan interrupted. "Wait, decent coverage? The worst areas?" he looked at the other three skeptically, "Just how many demons and vampires hang out here anyway?"

Xander and Dawn exchanged glances, both of them running up a mental tally. "Um, in the last year, we've done away with a couple hundred vamps and at least seventy demons. Add that to the evil humans who always seem to be popping up, and I'd have to say . . . lots," Xander answered as Jonathan's jaw dropped. "And I agree with Dawn. Decent coverage of the bad spots is likely the best we're going to get, though I'd like to know who the other two people are that Tres is considering part of the group," Xander requested politely, obviously already knowing the answer.

Dawn nodded her head, apparently expecting the question. "Tres figures that, based on what happened to all of us, we won't have any way of keeping last night from Buffy," The cyborg carefully avoided mentioning her mother, "so she and Willow are going to end up wanting to help,"

"Okay," Amy said, "I can understand that, but you're just assuming that we'll all be able to hold our own against vampires and demons. I don't even know if I have Rukia's sword skills or magic, much less any of her enhanced physical abilities. Plus my _zanpakutō_ and _shihakushō_ disappeared when the spell ended last night, so I'm not exactly armed or armored anymore."

That remark was met with silence for several moments as the others considered what she'd said. Finally, Dawn spoke, "I suppose that we'd have to spend some time working up before hand, and I guess there's no guarantee that any of you have any more combat abilities than a regular person, but what happened last night and the fact that we all have memories and characteristics of our characters would seem to be a good sign,"

Xander smiled, "In other words, we'll burn that bridge when we get to it," the others immediately cast glares in his general direction. However, before anyone could say anything about the founding Scooby's sideways statement, the phone beside Amy rang, startling all of them with the unexpected intrusion.

After nearly fumbling the receiver, she managed to get it to her ear, "Hello?" she asked and immediately pulled the phone away from it. "By the _Kami_, Willow, slow down, I can't understand a word that you're saying." A pause as the redhead apparently tried to slow her speech to something a person who wasn't fluent in Willow-Babble could understand. "Yeah, I've seen them. They're here right now," Amy again pulled the receiver away from her ear. "They spent the night Willow. No _not _like that! We were tired and my place was convenient. Nobody to ask awkward questions 'cuz my dad's away on business." Another pause as she listened to the proto-Wicca. "Yeah, sure, we'll be there. Okay. Um," she began before shooting a look at Dawn, "one other thing, ya' see, there might be some _changes_." Amy once again pulled the receiver away from her ear. "No Willow, nothing like that, just . . . different." A last few pleasantries were exchanged before Amy, shaking her head in exasperation and looking like she'd run a marathon. When she looked up, she found the eyes of the others pinning her to the chair in an uncomfortable manner. "What?"

Dawn raised her left eyebrow. "So, what did you just agree to? In all of our names nonetheless?"

Amy glared just slightly at the should-be-twelve year old. "She asked if we could be at the library at noon today. Giles is apparently freaking over the spell and who broke it. I figure getting this out of the way early is our best bet."

"Wait," Jonathan asked, nervous, "you mean we're just going to tell them everything?"

Amy turned a disapproving expression on the _Shinigami_,"Well, considering that Dawn has apparently aged four or five years in the space of a night, I really don't see another option." The others, Dawn included, grimaced to varying degrees. "I figure we tell them what happened, and then try to make the best of it," she turned to Dawn, "Does your mom know about the weird stuff in this town?" at Dawn's negative headshake her frown came back. "That'll be a fun conversation," she declared authoritatively.

Dawn looked at her and replied monotone, "Thank you, Captain Obvious. So, what's the plan? We have," a look at the clock, "twenty minutes to figure it out before we need to leave. Nothing like flying by the seat of our pants." Everyone simply stared at each other. Even Father Tres was silent in the back of Dawn's mind. After about thirty seconds of silence, Dawn put her head in her hands and muttered, "I'm doomed,"

XXXXX

Miso: A paste produced by fermenting rice, barley, and soybeans with salt and kōji. The result is used in a number of traditional Japanese dishes, most notably Miso soup.

Kōji: A fungus used to create both miso and soy sauce through the fermentation of soybeans.

Umeboshi: Pickled ume, a fruit similat to the apricot.

Nattō: Made frome fermented soybeans, it is usually seved with breakfast. Frequently with rice.

Tamago kake gohan: Literally, egg sauce over rice. A raw egg, sometimes with soy sauce served over or mixed with rice.

Gaijin: Literally, outsider. Not Japanese.

Kami: An object of worship in the _Shinto_ faith. _Not _only a god/deity.

Daikon: Japanese radish.

Soba: Noodles made from buckwheat flour.

Miyabi: Literally, elegance, refinement, or courtliness. Contextually, one of the traditional Japanese aesthetic ideals.

Hashioki: The chopstick rest

Shōyu: Soy sauce

Zanpakutō: Literally, soul cutter. A Soul Reaper's weapon

Shihakushō: The black robes that form a Soul Reaper's uniform.

XXXXX

A cliffhanger! Aren't I evil? Sorry about the lack of action in this chapter, but I needed to do a general info dump for those of you who don't know much about the crossovers, and I needed to know, and to let you know, just how much and in what way the four remember Halloween. My beta raised the fact that they don't seem to be reacting much to the changes that they've undergone. My answer is that they're still somewhat shell-shocked.

If you have any questions feel free to ask them when you submit a review! If you don't question my thoughts and approach, then I have no way to improve as a writer.

And that's it. I'm goin' back to bed.


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